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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29101224">Will and Horace Have an Adventure</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/solarishashernoseinabook/pseuds/solarishashernoseinabook'>solarishashernoseinabook</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Ranger's Apprentice - John Flanagan</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Age-appropriate angst, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Getting Lost, Mentions of dead parents, They're kids in this one, mild bullying, people are superstitious of rangers</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 13:34:15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,182</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29101224</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/solarishashernoseinabook/pseuds/solarishashernoseinabook</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Will's idyllic life in the Ward is disrupted when a third child comes to live there the same day some unwelcome news arrives. It's a bit much to deal with.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Horace Altman &amp; Will Treaty</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>14</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Will and Horace Have an Adventure</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aseikh/gifts">Aseikh</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>For the Ranger's Apprentice Discord Server birthday exchange, for aseikh! </p><p>Prompt: "Will and Horace's relationship (platonic or romantic ok)." </p><p>Sorry this probably wasn't exactly what you had in mind OTL but I hope you like it anyway &lt;3 </p><p>Note: Somehow in between the last time I read Ruins of Gorlan and when I frantically checked it a week ago, I invented the order and rough ages in which the kids all arrived at the Ward despite no textual evidence. The Early Years try to give some, but as they contradict earlier canon I've elected to ignore it. If your personal headcanon on when the various kids arrived differs from mine that's fine, just don't bother me about it lol</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>       For Will, life in the Ward was fun and carefree. There was Wardmaster Giles, who came in every day to check on them, make sure the rules were followed and teach him and Alyss their letters and numbers, and there was their portly matron Suzy, who told them stories and fed them and kissed their scrapes and bruises. Suzy had always been there. When people talked about mothers, Will thought of Suzy. People had told Will he was an orphan, but those words didn’t resonate with him yet. They said it meant he had no parents, but thanks to her, it felt like he did. <br/>      After their lessons Will and Alyss had the day free to do whatever they wanted, and they always ran out to the courtyard, where they could climb trees and chase each other under Suzy’s watchful and doting eye, secure in the knowledge that they had only to run to her if they needed anything. <br/>      Everything changed three days before the fall equinox, when Suzy came in late after speaking to Wardmaster Giles for a long time. <br/>      Will was running around the ward with a wooden sword, knocking it against furniture and yelling at invisible enemies. ‘Yah! Go away, evil Mow-gow-ath! Take that!’ <br/>      ‘Will!’ Alyss hissed. ‘Come look!’ <br/>      ‘Aw, Lyss, can’t it wait?’ Will whined. <br/>       ‘Suzy’s crying!’ <br/>       Instantly Will dropped the sword and ran to the door, which had been left ajar. Suzy was dabbing her eyes with a handkerchief and wringing her hands. ‘I’m sorry. But with my mother’s illness…well, it’s been great working here, and I will miss the kids, goodness knows they’re old enough now that they’re almost a handful, I hate to think of you taking care of them alone—’ <br/>       ‘You’re leaving?!’ Will cried, bursting through the door and throwing his arms around Suzy’s legs. Alyss ran after him and clung to Suzy’s skirts, looking equally distressed even if she was less vocal about it. <br/>      Suzy smiled sadly and sat in a chair Giles gave her, lifting the children into her lap. ‘Yes. I have one more week – that’s seven sleeps – and then I have to go.’ <br/>       ‘But why?’ Will said. <br/>      ‘My mother’s very sick. I need to look after her.’ <br/>      ‘Can’t you take us with you?’ Alyss said. <br/>      ‘No, dear, this is your home. Until you’re old enough to become apprentices you have to stay with the nice baron in his castle.’ <br/>      ‘But we wanna stay with you!’ Tears stung at the corners of Will’s eyes. <br/>      Suzy sniffled. ‘Oh, Will, I know. But this would always have had to happen one day. I wish it wasn’t so soon, but I can’t change it.’ <br/>       Will looked up into Suzy’s face, her smile wavering and her eyes red, and couldn’t stand it anymore. He shoved himself off her lap and ran into the bedroom, climbed atop the great oak wardrobe with the aid of a chair, curled up, and dissolved into tears. </p><hr/><p>      Will curled up in bed that night, having drawn the pillow beneath the covers and putting his head underneath it so he was enveloped in complete darkness. He tended to sleep like this when he was upset. Suzy had asked him about it once, and he said he didn’t know why, but something about it made him feel like he could block out the unwanted thoughts. <br/>       For a long time the only sounds were Alyss’s gentle snores. Then the door opened, and through a gap in the blanket Will saw the flickering light of a candle. He was about to sit up when he heard Giles and Suzy talking in hushed tones. Suzy never came to the ward at night. <br/>      ‘What’s his name?’ Giles said. <br/>      ‘Horace Altman.’ <br/>      ‘Heh. Funny, innit?’ That was Carrow, a servant who tended to come to the castle every couple of weeks delivering news from around the fief. ‘Altman. Means “old man”. But he ain’t, inn’t he, he’s just a little boy.’ <br/>      ‘Did you hear what happened to his parents, Carrow?’ Giles said in a tone of exaggerated patience. <br/>      ‘Oh, yeah. Mother died of illness, father in a farming accident. But he was one of the soldiers, so…’ <br/>      Will took a chance and lifted the edge of the blanket gently. Giles was setting up a cot with a thin mattress and spare blankets. ‘We’ll put in an order for proper furniture for him in the morning. Let him sleep for now.’ <br/>      Suzy put down the boy she was carrying and tucked him in. He was taller than Will and his pale face stood out against dark hair. Even in sleep he was clutching something, but Will couldn’t see it in the dim light. <br/>      ‘Kid was cryin’ the whole way here,’ Carrow said. ‘Then I met up with Suzy and she got him off to sleep.’ <br/>      ‘Yes, well, you weren’t helping, Carrow, just telling him to stop all the time,’ Suzy said, with a note of harshness Will rarely heard. <br/>      ‘Sorry. I ain’t very good with ‘em when they’re upset…’ <br/>      The voices faded as the adults left. The door closed and the room was plunged into darkness once more, but Will kept staring at the place where the new boy Horace was sleeping. <br/>      Another boy! It had been just him and Alyss for so long. Will’s disquiet at the change to the only home he’d known warred with his excitement at having a new playmate. Alyss wasn’t interested in playing Knights and her skirts made it hard to climb. Maybe Horace would want to do those things with him. <br/>      It took Will a long time to fall asleep that night. </p><hr/><p>      ‘Wake up, Will. Master Giles is serving breakfast already,’ Suzy said, rubbing Will’s arm. <br/>      Will woke up slowly, his hair sticking up all over the place. Suzy chuckled. ‘Let’s comb that first, shall we?’ She picked up the wooden comb and sat on the bed, running it through his hair slowly to tease out the tangles. ‘You’ve got a new friend. Alyss met him already. His name’s Horace.’ <br/>       ‘I know,’ Will said, and immediately realised he shouldn’t have. <br/>      Fortunately for him, Suzy didn’t realise he had stayed up late. ‘Oh I’m sorry, Will, did we wake you up?’ <br/>      Will nodded. <br/>      ‘No wonder you slept so late! I’m sorry, we tried to be quiet, but you’re a light sleeper, aren’t you?’ <br/>      Will stayed quiet. <br/>      ‘Well, at least you’ll have a new friend to play with. Isn’t that exciting?’ <br/>      ‘Yeah. Maybe he’ll want to be a knight with me!’ Will said. <br/>       Suzy smiled. ‘I’m sure he will! Horace likes knights just as much as you do.’ She put the comb down and patted his shoulders. ‘Now come on! There’s bacon today.’ <br/>       Will jumped up and followed Suzy into the main room of the Ward, where chairs had been placed around the table for breakfast. The new boy, Horace, looked up at him. <br/>      Now that it was daylight Will could see him more clearly. His hair was brown as well, but darker than Will’s and less messy, and his frame was more stout rather than Will’s skinny one. He was eating with one hand; in the other, he held a toy, the figure of a knight carved roughly out of wood. <br/>      ‘Oh! Suzy, Suzy, he’s got a toy! It’s a knight! Look, Suzy! Where’d he get it?’ <br/>      Suzy laughed. ‘Yes, Will, I see it!’ She smiled at Horace. ‘Horace, do you want to tell Will where you got your toy?’ <br/>      Silence. Then—<br/>      ‘Dad made it for me,’ Horace mumbled. <br/>      ‘I like knights. I wanna be a knight just like my dad! Oh! We’ve got a sword, look!’ Will started to run off, but Suzy grabbed him by the shoulder and steered him back gently to the table. ‘Not yet, Will, eat up first.’ <br/>      Will climbed on the chair across from Horace, who was still looking at him. Will tilted his head to one side. ‘What?’ <br/>      ‘You’re too short to be a knight,’ Horace said. <br/>       ‘Horace! That wasn’t very nice,’ Will heard Suzy say, but he was barely paying attention. Horace’s comment stung. <br/>       All of a sudden Will thought it might be better if it were just him and Alyss in the Ward again. </p><hr/><p>       After breakfast was lessons. Horace was being taught separately, as he hadn’t learned his letters at all. Will and Alyss finished earlier than him and ran out to play, but Will could feel Horace’s scowl following them. <br/>       He forgot it moments later when they burst out of the Ward into the bright sunlight, the crisp autumn air blowing through their hair and turning their cheeks red. Suzy trotted out after them with their cloaks and Alyss ran back for hers, but Will kept running, a mischievous grin on his face. Suzy obliged him by jogging after him for a few moments before catching up to him. ‘There you go, you rascal!’ she said, pinning the cloak around Will’s neck. Will laughed and almost ran off again, but Horace was coming out of the Ward now and Suzy smiled and welcomed him. Alyss was running over to Horace to greet him and Will followed. <br/>      ‘Oh Horace, you forgot your cloak too! Here, let’s get it on you.’ Suzy swung it around his shoulders just as a door opened. Horace’s eyes widened. ‘Who’s that?’ <br/>      They looked around. ‘That’s Ranger Halt,’ Suzy said in hushed tones, making the old sign to protect against evil as discreetly as she could. <br/>      Halt’s face, hidden by the hood of his cloak, turned in their direction. For some reason, it seemed to be focussed mainly on Will. Will stared back. He thought he could see a pair of dark eyes gazing at him. <br/>       Abruptly the ranger turned away and strode to the small door in the wall around this side of the courtyard. Servants and visitors jumped out of the way as he passed, apparently taking no notice of them. He swung into the saddle of a small horse and left. <br/>       Suzy relaxed. ‘Well! So you met a ranger, Horace. You’ll be seeing Halt around here sometimes, so remember to be careful around him.’ <br/>       Will watched the area where the ranger had been for several moments before Suzy clapped her hands. ‘Well, no point in dwelling on that, let’s have fun! Will, Horace, why don’t you two go play knights?’ <br/>      Will ran off to get the wooden swords before he could hear what Horace said. When he came back, it was to find Horace sitting facing the wall and playing with his little toy knight, and Suzy braiding Alyss’s hair. <br/>       ‘Why’s Horace just sitting there?’ Will asked. <br/>       ‘He’s dealing with a lot right now,’ Suzy said. ‘He only lost his parents a few weeks ago. It’s still very hard on him and sometimes he won’t want to do very much.’ <br/>       “Lost his parents”. Will heard that phrase a lot, mostly when adults spoke to each other when they thought he wasn’t listening. Suzy had told him what it meant once. <br/>      ‘But it’s okay!’ Will said. ‘You’re here, Suzy! Everything’s okay when you’re here!’ <br/>       Suzy smiled sadly again and all of a sudden it all came back to Will. </p><hr/><p>      How was it possible for a week to sometimes seem so short and yet so long? <br/>Will knew that a week was seven days, which was a very long time. He wasn’t exactly sure what “a few weeks" meant, but it sounded to Will like that was practically forever. <br/>       But Suzy was leaving in a week, and all of a sudden a week didn’t feel like any time at all. <br/>       Suddenly Will didn’t feel like playing either. <br/>       He had been wandering around the courtyard aimlessly, at one point picking up an interesting pebble that was all white. He stared at it for a few moments before smiling and sticking it in his pocket. Suzy didn’t like it when he brought stones into the Ward, so he resolved to hide it. He wandered a bit more before stopping near the courtyard wall. <br/>       This was where the horse had been – he could see the imprints of its hooves in the grass and where it had nibbled on a bush nearby. Will felt like he could feel the magic all rangers had seeping up through the ground and enchanting the air around him. <br/>      He was snapped out of his musings by Suzy calling them in for a snack to tide them over till dinner. Will happily turned and ran back in. </p><hr/><p>       Horace seemed more willingly to play after they ate – at least, he was moving around the courtyard, though he was still ignoring them. Will decided to try his luck and went over. ‘Hi Horace!’ <br/>      ‘What do <em>you</em> want?’ Horace said sullenly. <br/>      Will dug into his pocket and pulled out the white pebble. ‘Look what I found! And it glitters if you look at it right!’ <br/>      Horace took it from him and glanced at it, then gripped it in his fist and flung it as far across the courtyard as he could. <br/>       ‘Hey! Horace, you bum!’ <br/>       Horace shoved him back. ‘Just go away! Leave me alone!’ <br/>       Will staggered back a couple of steps, then growled and tried to shove Horace. It barely seemed to affect the taller boy physically, but Horace glared and Will realised he’d gone too far. He ran off, Horace running after him, and scampered up a tree in the blink of an eye. Horace arrived moments later and tried climbing up as well, but couldn’t make it past the first branch. He screamed in rage. <br/>       ‘Boys! Horace, Will, stop that!’ Suzy yelled, running over with Giles following. Giles pulled Horace away and Suzy coaxed Will down until he was close enough for her to lift out of the tree. She hugged him close. ‘I’m sorry. You just wanted to be friends with him, right?’ <br/>       ‘He threw my rock away,’ Will said, sniffling. ‘It was sparkly.’ <br/>       Suzy tutted in sympathy and petted Will’s head. Now, all of a sudden, it didn’t matter that Suzy would leave eventually. He rested his head on her shoulder and wrapped his arms around her neck, letting her comforting presence wash over him. </p><hr/><p>      Will avoided Horace for the rest of the day and the next morning – though it wasn’t very easy, because Horace seemed determined to make life hard for him at every opportunity. If Will went to play with the wooden swords, Horace got to them first. When Master Chubb came around with dinner, Horace grabbed the bits of food Will had his eye on. When fresh bread rolls were served alongside porridge for breakfast, Horace grabbed the largest roll and used up the last of the honey. It only improved when Giles sat Will and Alyss down for their lessons and Horace to taken to another room to do his. <br/>       Giles was watching Will trace the letters in his name when Suzy peeked in, smiling. ‘Giles, don’t keep them much longer. It’s the Equinox.’ <br/>      ‘The E’winocks!’ Alyss said. ‘We get to stay up late, right?’ <br/>      ‘That’s right! And we get honey cakes, tea and candied plums.’ <br/>       Will loved the Equinoxes. Twice a year they got to stay up late, have sweets, and listen to Suzy tell stories and sing songs in honour of the minor holidays. <br/>       ‘Yes, it is rather getting on for time,’ Giles said. ‘Why don’t you have a nap after lunch, hm? Then you can stay up late.’ <br/>      ‘But we’re not tired!’ Will said, as their school things were cleared away and food put out. <br/>       ‘Well at least lie in bed while I tell everyone a story, does that sound like a good idea?’ Suzy suggested with a smile. <br/>       And so it was that after lunch, Will and Alyss followed her into the bedroom, and Horace joined them after a moment. They all climbed into their beds as Suzy began speaking. And then all of a sudden Will opened his eyes and it was dusk, and he had been tucked into bed. <br/>       He could smell the warm honey cakes and slid out of bed to go to the door – maybe if he went out now he could get the best cakes and plums before Horace did. <br/>      Then he heard Suzy talking to Giles. <br/>       ‘It’ll be hard to enjoy this Equinox, what with me leaving so soon,’ she was saying, and occasionally she sniffled. <br/>       ‘I’m sure we can manage here,’ Giles said. <br/>       ‘Oh, but Horace only just arrived, and he’s having so much trouble adjusting, and he keeps taking it out on Will…if I could stay longer, help him process everything, I’m sure it would be fine, but as it is, I’m worried things will only get worse between them, and leaving you to deal with that on your own…’ <br/>      Will missed the rest. Yes…Suzy would be leaving. And she wouldn’t be there to tell him stories on any more holidays, or hug him if Horace chased him up a tree again, or make him feel safe when it seemed like everything was going wrong. <br/>       Suddenly Will didn’t want sweets or tea, didn’t want to hear stories or sit by the fire. He just wanted to be as far away from here as possible. <br/>       The slightest of breezes ruffled his hair and he looked up. The window had been left open. Before he could think about it Will pulled on his boots and scrambled through it. <br/>       He dropped noiselessly onto the soft grass below. No one was around here at the moment. Will ran to the shadows along the wall of the courtyard and crouched there, taking in deep, gulping breaths. <br/>       Where did he go from here? He had only been outside the wall a few times and it had always been with someone. <br/>      <em> The door. </em><br/>       The one the ranger had gone through – looking up, Will could see it. He started running. <br/>      When he was almost there his foot kicked something and he looked down. It was the white pebble Horace had thrown, glittering in the pale moonlight. Will grabbed it and stuck it in his pocket. <br/>       ‘What’re you doing?’ said a voice behind him. Will whirled around – it was Horace. <br/>       ‘Horace! Why did you follow me?’ Will asked in what he thought was a whisper. <br/>       ‘I heard you leave. Why’re you here?’ <br/>       Will squared his shoulders. ‘I’m leaving.’ <br/>       ‘Why?’ <br/>       ‘’Cause I don’t wanna stay if Suzy isn’t.’ <br/>       Silence. Then—<br/>       ‘Suzy’s leaving?’ Horace said hesitantly. <br/>       Will nodded. <br/>       Horace looked very sad all of a sudden. Will began to feel sympathy for him before remembering Horace had taken all the pickles for himself at lunch. He opened the door and left. <br/>       Something about that first step outside the walls sent a tingle running through Will’s body all the way from the tips of his toes to the hair on his head. He took another step and the tingle turned into a shiver of excitement dancing up and down his spine. A third step and he was filled with such indescribable energy that he laughed and ran across the open field. <br/>       After a minute he heard footsteps next to him and looked over. Horace had followed him and seemed determined to go where he went. Will sped up, but Horace matched his pace. ‘Stop following me!’ <br/>       ‘No!’ <br/>       ‘I said stop!’ <br/>       Horace just kept running. <br/>       Suddenly furious, Will ran into the woods, running between trees and dodging bushes. It was now fully night and the only light came from the full moon and stars, creating extra shadows where it shone through the trees. Will kept running, though he tripped every few steps, because from the sound of it Horace was still chasing him. He ran with no plan or destination in mind until his foot snagged on a root and he tumbled head over heels to the ground. He pushed himself up on his hands and knees slowly and sniffled. <br/>       He heard a whimper from behind him and looked back. Horace had fallen as well and was holding one leg. Will sat a short distance away and hugged himself. <br/>       ‘H-Hey, Will?’ <br/>      ‘Yeah?’ <br/>       ‘Where are we?’ <br/>       Will looked around. ‘I…I don’t know.’ <br/>       Horace sobbed and Will felt a sudden flash of anger. ‘It’s your fault! You chased me in here!’ <br/>       Horace didn’t respond. <br/>       Will stood slowly. It had begun to get cold and he was shivering – neither of them had grabbed their cloaks. ‘You have to get us out, you got us in here. That’s fair.’ <br/>       Horace wiped his nose and stood as well. ‘I – I think it’s this way.’ He started walking carefully, and Will caught up with him. <br/>       A small animal skittered through the leaf litter, making Will jump. Something screeched in the branches above them. Both boys screamed when the stick Horace stepped over turned out to be a snake, visible only as a dark shape against the lighter leaves. <br/>       ‘W-Will?’ <br/>       ‘Y-Yeah?’ <br/>       ‘My dad said monsters come out on the E-E’winocks. D’you think that’s true?’ <br/>       ‘Suzy doesn’t say anything about monsters,’ Will said, but here now, with a cold autumn wind rattling branches and blowing falling leaves into their faces, he had never believed in monsters more. <br/>       Why had he ever wanted to leave the Ward? He would give anything to be back there now. <br/>       ‘You boys shouldn’t be out here,’ said a quiet voice, and Will and Horace screamed again, looking around wildly for the source of the noise. <br/>       A figure stepped into a circle of light between two trees and pushed down its hood. It was Halt. <br/>       Beside him, Will caught Horace clumsily attempting Suzy’s sign against evil. <br/>       Will stepped in front of Horace with a confidence he didn’t entirely feel. ‘We’re – we’re not afraid of you!’ <br/>       ‘Good,’ Halt said, in a tone that surprised Will almost as much as the response itself – he sounded almost proud. He reached down and grabbed their hands, leading them in a different direction entirely from the one they had been going in. <br/>       After only a short time they got to the main trail, and on that trail was the ranger’s horse, his reins dangling in front of him. Halt let go of them to reach into a saddlebag and took a bundle out of it. <br/>      ‘Are we gonna ride back?’ Horace asked. <br/>       ‘I’m the only one that can ride him. But we’ll all walk out of here. It’s not far.’ He shook out the bundle and turned to them – it was a wool blanket, and he tossed it around their shoulders. The boys instinctively huddled closer under it. Halt put a surprisingly gentle hand on Will’s shoulder and said, ‘Abelard.’ <br/>       Was that some kind of magical word? Was the ranger going to cast a spell? But if it was magic, it only controlled the horse, because when Halt started walking, gently leading Will and Horace, the horse followed obediently behind them. <br/>       Will kept looking up at Halt as they walked. The ranger seemed to tower over him in a way other adults didn’t. Will was at once scared and fully confident that he was safe here. <br/>       Then the trees thinned and a cabin came into view. A lit lantern was dangling on the porch and Giles and Suzy were there. In front of the cabin was a small cart filled with blankets on a bed of soft hay; Alyss was on it, trying valiantly to stay awake. As soon as they emerged from the trees all three of them jumped up and ran over. Alyss threw her arms around Will and burst into tears, and moments later Suzy drew all three children into a bone-crushing hug. ‘Oh, Will, Horace, thank goodness nothing happened! I was so scared, I couldn’t stop thinking of what you might have run into out there – what on earth possessed the two of you to leave?’ <br/>       Will couldn’t answer. Why had he left? It felt like they had wandered the woods for ages, and the anger he had felt then seemed so distant as to no longer matter, swamped instead by the relief and security of being with people he knew and loved again. <br/>       ‘Well, anyway, it’s past midnight, let’s get you back to bed,’ Suzy said, standing and handing Halt’s blanket back to him. She began shepherding them towards the cart. Will took a few steps before something occurred to him and he stopped. ‘Wait!’ <br/>       He turned and ran back to Halt, the confused eyes of everyone else following him. He reached into his pocket, grabbed the pebble and held it up. ‘Thank you mister ranger man sir!’ <br/>       Halt looked down at it for a moment; then his hand reached out and took it. ‘You’re welcome,’ he said, so quietly only Will heard it. <br/>       Then Will ran back to the cart and climbed on to lie between Alyss and Horace. Giles covered the three of them with blankets and sat on the driver’s bench with Suzy, riding back to the Ward. In minutes the gentle rocking of the cart lulled the children to sleep, cuddling each other in a tangle of blankets and straw. Horace’s hand was grabbing Will’s blanket, and Will’s hand clutched Horace’s sleeve. <br/>       Because tonight, at least, they were friends. </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I uh...use the word "suddenly" a lot in this fic huh </p><p>This is my second time writing the Ward children as kids and it's fun! Last time they were preteens/young teens and their personalities were closer to what we saw in the series proper. This time...I had a vague age in mind but they're young so I took more liberty with their personalities, especially Alyss, who doesn't feature much in this. I hope you had as much fun reading about them as I did writing about them ^-^ </p><p>And as always thanks to the wonderful aleanmeanaquamarine for doing last-minute beta reading &lt;3</p></blockquote></div></div>
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